We left Saturday morning and drove as far as Roseburg and stayed in a Walmart parking lot. Our first time doing that, but it was a very quiet location. Only thing that woke me up was the street sweeper cleaning the parking lot. Sunday morning we got up and after a quick trip into Walmart (we found out last summer going to Colorado it's not possible to pass a Walmart without needing something. hahaha) we were back on the road to Florence. Arrived there about noon and found our spots with no trouble at all.
Here's what our campsite looked like after unloading.
Lesley and Bryce were on our right, just out of the picture. Bryce's sister Kim and her family (husband Roger and their three kids Emily, Lee, and Lizzie) arrived about an hour or so after us and as soon as they were unloaded we hit the sand for the first time. Lesley went with me in the Rhino and ended up doing most of the driving that first day. We made it out to the ocean and raced up and down the beach on the wet smooth sand. Sadly, while we were out there Emily's quad decided to cough and die so Roger went back to camp for a tow strap and we used the Rhino to tow her back to camp. It was still a wonderful first day!
The whole group went out for one more ride Monday morning before Kim and Roger left for home. I stayed in camp and Bryce took Emily for the ride of her life in the Rhino ... sounds like he gave her a few thrills. lol
The rest of the week was filled with riding and eating. There's nothing like the great outdoors for sparking appetites and between the crock pot and Bryce's dutch oven we were dining like royalty!
Howard and I went out one day by ourselves and I learned a valuable lesson. When your husband says go fast ... you should think twice!! The first video shows what happens when you follow directions ... you get airborn! I'm pretty sure the people back home heard the scream as I felt the Rhino leave the ground. To me, it seemed as if I were FLYING!! When I look at this video it makes me laugh because I think I was all of maybe a foot off the ground. Sure didn't seem like it at the time. hahaha
This next video is me just trying to get over my fear of rolling down a hill sideways. There were several steep hills that served as my testing ground for going up, feeling the Rhino start to bog down, and making a U turn to come back down again. It's the sliding sideways down a hill that still un-nerves me. There were a couple where I didn't even have the chance to make the turn and I had to put it in reverse and back down. That's not a lot of fun either.
We left Florence on Friday, mid-morning and headed for Lapine where Kim and Roger live. They have a really beautiful piece of land with a very small house that's an octegon. The three kids share a bedroom with a triple decker bunk bed and Kim and Roger have the other bedroom. One bathroom ... brought back my growing up years on Keeney Way with only one bathroom. Not sure how we did it. I don't think any of the houses we've lived in since Alturas have only had one bathroom ... makes you very spoiled, I think.
Saturday night was Emily's homecoming and she was a trooper about having all of us there to give advice, tell stories, and listen to Roger try to talk her out of actually going on this "first date". I think the funniest part was when he changed shirts right before they went down the road to the boyfriend's house for pictures. lol Kim seemed the only one outraged at his "Trailer trash" shirt ... Emily thought it was funny and Kim just kept telling him, "You are NOT wearing that!!". In the end he put a sweatshirt over it. :)
That night we capped off a week of wonderful food with one last "over the top" meal. Roasted hotdogs over the fire, then dipped them in a cornmeal batter and fried them in up in one of the dutch ovens we had hanging over the fire. Kim made a pumpkin dessert in her dutch oven that was out of this world! We sat up around the campfire telling stories and laughing ... and fell into bed about 10pm. Pretty late for Howard and I ... we'd been going to bed most of the week by about 8:30 ... but it was a wonderful night!
Sunday morning we packed up again and hit the road for home. It was a REALLY long day and it's about the only time the whole trip where my knees were completely cranky with me. I'm not sure if it was the combination of the end of an extraordinary week, or the thought of having to leave all the fun and go home again ... but we got to Marysville (about 30 min from home) and my body was done. Thank goodness we were that close to home!
All in all it was just a super vacation and we're already planning a trip to Sand Mountain for the weekend before Thanksgiving!! Can you say "Got sand??"
